Gregory Walton

Who they are

Walton is a social psychologist in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. His research concerns the psychological processes behind social problems and what he and colleagues call wise interventions: brief exercises aimed at a specific way of thinking, designed to have lasting effects. One example is a short programme that supports college students' sense of belonging. His work also covers academic motivation, willpower and intergroup relations. He studied philosophy at Stanford, took a PhD in psychology at Yale University, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Waterloo.

Key papers

Walton, G. M., Cohen, G. L., Cwir, D., & Spencer, S. J. (2012), Mere belonging: The power of social connections, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 513-532. The paper reports four experiments in which links such as a shared birthday with another student, or membership of an arbitrary group tied to a performance domain, increased motivation and persistence relative to control conditions.

Key ideas

Minimal social connections can raise motivation and persistence.

The authors expected the effect to arise from socially shared goals around a performance task.

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